Francli Product Story # 5 : The Activity Rucksack

Paul Whittaker is a man full of energy and talent, splitting his time between film making, pottery, surfing and cultivating a damn good collection of colourful shirts! He was one of our first Francli customers and has now had an original Activity Rucksack for over a year. As an inspiring creative, lover of the Cornish coast and proud Francli owner, we asked him to test out the new Activity Rucksack design – spot his bouncy curls in the recent Francli Essentials video here! 

Tell us what you’ve been up to recently?

The signature on the end of my emails says "Film-maker", that's been my main focus over the last couple of years, although more recently pottery has taken a certain precedence in my life, at least in terms of time, if not financially. It's felt good to mix up the disciplines between digital media and hand-craft, and somehow they seem to compliment each other.

What do you love about living and working in a rural area?

I visited my brother in London last month, and its really fun up there, there's museums and galleries and jewish bagels. But its also super expensive, you can't see stars at night and everything's an advert, even interview pieces. Here all I can see is a duck out my window, and that duck doesn't even know what a Monet is. which is a shame because he could draw a damn good picture of that duck. These quiet examples of nature can be therapeutic and inspirational. Waves and horizons are pretty good too. 

How long have you owned a Francli rucksack and what do you like most about it?

Close friends of mine refuse to lend me books they have already read because of my reputation for not taking care of things and wrecking them. I've had my Francli bag for over a year and I literally take it everywhere with me and it looks exactly the same as when I received it. I've dropped it in puddles and its got wrapped in my bike chain and had banana skins left in it for weeks and it still looks the same. And its massive enough to fit a laptop and a 5 kilo bag of potatoes in at the same time.

Have you taken it on any adventures?

I camped on the pine-lined coast of France last year, surfing wind swept shore dumps and sitting with german compadres amongst the pine cones. One day we found a tomato plant growing out of a human turd and then we put one of those tomatoes in a baguette and it was delicious! But because it's comfy and not covered in diamante, I can pretty much take it anywhere, I cycled around paris in the sun and walked-a-bout the lake district in winter all the while carrying around my bag with whatever I need to. I think thats the best bit about it: I always have everything I need in it, it's like a shell, if I've got it with me, I know I can go anywhere and not need anything else.